Ron Cassell owns Green Acres, a local business that specializes in lawn maintenance during the summer and snowplowing during the winter. He estimates a 25% decrease in business since the start of the summer.

“It’s a loss of income of course, but also it means a loss of employees,” said Cassell, who had to let his own son go due to the lack of work.

“Except for the people we have on contract … there has pretty much been (no calls for service).”

Cassell has been able to retain one employee to help with the contract work.

The first two months of summer led to a few calls, but as the heat persisted, he’s had no new work, Cassell said.

“Right now, even with the contracts, we go out seven to 10 times a week,” he said. He estimates that visits per customer have decreased from 20 last year, to three or four.

“There are lawns we haven’t done in weeks,” he said.

A large portion of the weekly workload now consists of removing weeds, one of the few things that continue to grow.

The slow summer follows a winter when a relatively small amount of snowfall hurt the snowplowing end of his business.

“Last year was awful,” he said. “There were only three snowfalls that technically needed to be plowed and one of them customers didn’t bother calling in as there were two days of warm weather following that.”

In a typical year, he said, he would visit each customer 14 to 16 times.

Jim Nikas, owner of Simply Grass, said he believes the drought has impacted his lawn-mowing business by 70%.

“Because of the lack of rain a lot of the lawns have gone dormant and people think they’ve died,” he said. The effect is most evident on those who don’t irrigate their lawns.

“Any gardening at this time of the year can’t be done. If somebody calls us, we often have to say there’s no use to do that because it won’t survive,” he said, adding his gardening business has decreased by 90%.

Lawn-mowing wasn’t impacted as much because his contracts are enough to sustain him.

David Postma, owner of Team Small Engine, a lawnmower and snow blower repair shop, said he’s also suffered a loss in business of up to 75%.

“It’s almost murdered me,” he said. “Normally this time of year, we have 50 to 100 lawn mowers to repair. If one comes in today we’d probably be able to finish it by today.”

Seven years ago, he said, that customer would face a one-month wait. Business has fallen, he said, from $500,000 a year to between $60,000 and $70,000.

“Unfortunately it’s a seasonal business, so if we don’t have good weather we really don’t have a business,” Postma said.

“The industry is unique. It’s not like you can say let’s do an advertising campaign and we’ll draw more people in. It’s based on demand.”

Postma said he had to let three of his employees go because of decrease in work.

“It is what it is,” he said. “Unless we get rain there’s no way we can catch up at this point.”

Weather tidbits

• Amid the hot, dry weather, weeds have been able to persist. Lonnie Aarssen, a professor in the Queen’s University department of biology, says the “pesky plants” are able to survive because of their deeper rooting systems. “The drought isn’t going to have much of an effect on them. If anything, this is a good time of year to spot and pull them out because they’re conspicuous.”
• Guy Gariepy, owner of Gariepy Lawn and Garden, said that while working fields, he’s noticed a large decrease in the quality of trees, with many losing foliage, and increased diseases due to heat stress. Often large areas are browned on top because there is insufficient moisture to carry nutrients to the top.
• Trees such as maple, ash, fruit, and street trees are the ones who have been impacted the most. “The fruit trees are shredding their fruit because of the heat,” Gariepy said.